Comptroller holds roundtable on mental health.

State Comptroller Sean Scanlon travels to New Britain. today Scanlon “will convene a roundtable to discuss mental health challenges and access to resources throughout Connecticut. The panel will also cover a broad range of topics, from child and adolescent mental health to addiction and recovery.”

Many roundtables are gabfests that recite what participants already know–with a few helpings of tut-tutting added at regular intervals. Today’s could be different if participants address one potential solution to the shortage of mental health and addiction beds in Connecticut: convert UConn Health to a mental health and addiction facility.

UConn Health continues to be a burden for the state, as Scanlon knows. Making a success of the hospital continues to confound UConn’s leadership. The search for a healthcare conglomerate to take the hospital off the state’s hands has failed. The pension costs and work rules will always be significant impediments.

Massachusetts provides a way forward. The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital opened in 2012 and provides 320 beds for 260 adults and 60 adolescents. The UConn facility in Farmington, which is new enough to require modest alterations, could serve an essential public purpose.

Published May 24, 2023.